❤︎

"...Arthit, you don't think," Nam stopped for a moment before continuing. "Kongpob knows about our plan?"

❤︎

So...after that revelation, I hardly had any sleep last night. I couldn't stop thinking about what Nam had said. Sure, I told Nam it wasn't possible because if he really did know about our plan, he definitely wouldn't have agreed to make me his boyfriend. But when I thought about it, maybe it really was possible. In fact, maybe May was right all along when she said this plan of ours would probably backfire on us.

What should I do now?

Suddenly, an idea formed inside my mind. What if... I broke up with Kongpob now, just before things got messy? I mean, if May was right (and I really believed she was) then it could get really messy. Kongpob might punish me and end up kissing me and that was something I couldn't possibly allow. I'd rather die. And if it wasn't that, he and Jessica could be plotting something even more horrible against me. After all, we were not actually dating anyway. It was all an act.

But there was just one problem – Nam. She would never approve of me breaking up with Kongpob so easily. She was still certain to prove that Kongpob liked me. She just couldn't seem to see how hard it was for me to pretend to like him, especially since he was such a jerk to me. And if I told her I would, she would definitely get mad at me.

However... I could always just do it without telling her, couldn't I? I could just break up with Kongpob and not tell Nam about it. Or maybe I would, but not at once. I'd try to catch her in one of her best moods before I would tell her. Yes, that was it.

As I was about to reach for my cell phone, it suddenly vibrated on the table in front of me, signaling that a new message was received. It was Kongpob. "You didn't call me yesterday. That means you broke one of my rules. For your punishment, come to school right now."

Why should I go to school now? Today was a Saturday. "No way. Why would I go somewhere to receive my punishment? If you want to punish me, come and get me." I replied to him stubbornly. But after I did, I realized that I shouldn't have done that. What if he would really come here and kiss me in front of my parents? After all, he always did the most bizarre things. And to make things seem like that, the doorbell rang all of a sudden.

My blood froze and thinking it was really him, I rushed down the stairs, opened the door ready to scream at him, only to reveal a friend of my mother's.

As soon as I saw it was her, I let out a sigh of relief. Then I ran back to my room and sent another message taking back what I said earlier. "I changed my mind. I'm going there now." After sending that, I hurriedly changed my clothes and rushed towards school, just before he could actually arrive at my house. I was 100% he still remembered where I lived.

However, when I got there, he was nowhere in sight. Instead, what I saw in front of the school's steps was a medium-sized brown bear with a jersey on, holding a folded note between its paws.

Curious as to what it was that Kongpob was up to, I cautiously looked around before I took the folded note and opened it. "This isn't your punishment yet. Take me and start walking 10 steps to your left then 30 steps to your right."

What exactly was he trying to make me do? I couldn't help thinking as I did what the note said. After all, I got to keep the cute bear so it was okay. Once I took the last 20th step, in front of me was a picnic blanket with different kinds of food arranged in a deliciously, mouth-watering manner. "Wow." I exclaimed in a whisper, suddenly wondering if I just fell asleep and was now in an amazing dream, a very good one.

"You like it, don't you?" Kongpob suddenly spoke from behind me, taking me back to reality.

I turned to face him with a frown. "What are all these?" I remarked, pointing at the tempting sight and the cute bear. Somehow, I could already sense something very fishy about this. Kongpob couldn't possibly be doing nice things like these for no reason at all, could he?

He raised his eyebrow innocently. "What do you mean? I told you already, didn't I? This is your punishment." He answered, walking past me and sitting himself down on the blanket.

"Punishment?" I asked in disbelief. Since when did eating yummy food become a punishment? Unless he was planning something else. And after a few seconds, I had some suspicions about that. "Wait, you're just going to let me watch you eat all these food, aren't you?"

He began to laugh. "What do you think of me, a glutton? I'm not like you, you know. I can't be too heavy or else I won't be able to shoot 20 hoops in a game, would I?" He replied bragging with that smug smile of his.

Not yet fully convinced, I tried another one of my ideas. "Then, you're going to ask me to clean these up after eating, aren't you?" I said, looking at him accusingly.

"Yah, I'm not that mean. Your punishment is just that you have to spend your Saturday with your boyfriend, okay?" he said, probably seeing that I wouldn't stop if he hadn't explained that. Then he raised his brow. "Aren't you going to sit down?"

I took my seat in front of him, still suspicious of what his real motives were. I mean, just yesterday, he made my first date a complete nightmare and now he was actually trying to make this seem like the perfect date (which I hated to admit he was succeeding in). So what could possibly have caused him to change?

"Wait a minute, I think I got it." I thought aloud, looking at him with a smirk. "You're doing this to make up for what happened yesterday, aren't you? You're feeling guilty for ruining our first date, aren't you?"

He looked dumbfounded. "Who said we had our first date yesterday? This is our first date." He responded casually, taking a piece of the riceball with his chopsticks and stuffing it into his mouth.

0_0

Okay, did he just hit his head and forgot about everything that happened yesterday? "Let me refresh your memory. We went to a coffee shop yesterday, and you asked me to pay for the bill because you left your wallet in your locker. And when I said I wouldn't pay, you flirted with the waitress!" I exclaimed in an angry tone from having remembered such a terrible experience.

"So you were jealous of her, I knew it." He suddenly said as he smiled that annoying (handsome duh) smile.

I already told you, didn't I? I don't even care whether or not you flirt with everyone you see. What I care about is what people would think of me. I was humiliated yesterday." I remarked. "It was definitely the worst date."

He took another riceball and popped it into his mouth. "Yesterday wasn't a date." He said once again.

I raised a brow at him. "Oh yeah? Then what would you call it then?" I asked, annoyed that he wouldn't accept his mistake but at the same time eager to know how he would escape this.

"I don't know." He answered with a shrug. "I just know that a date is a date only when I ask you out. I didn't ask you to go on a date yesterday, did I? So yesterday doesn't count. Today is our first date."

I didn't know why, but when he said that, my heart suddenly felt happy and light, the same way it did whenever I watched a romantic scene in a drama.

Could it be...?

I shook the stupid thought away quickly.

He was the enemy here, I mustn't falter.

I looked towards the riceball. "W-Why does this riceball look like it's gone through hell? Did you make it?" I struggled to change the topic, aware of the red heat in my cheeks. I just prayed Kongpob wouldn't see me blushing.

Fortunately, he didn't notice...I think. "No, I didn't. I bought it from a supermarket on the way. If I made that, it would've looked 10 times better." He responded proudly, his eyes twinkling as he looked at me smugly.

Happy to have changed topics, I took one and tasted it. "Mmm...this tastes good. No wonder it couldn't have been made by you. I bet yours would look good, but would be tasteless." I teased as I chewed on it.

"It tastes good?" he asked, suddenly beaming and there was the happiest twinkle in his eyes. Like a child who is presented with icecream on a hot summer day. "What if I told you it's really me who made that?"

"I wouldn't believe you, because you already said you bought it." I replied sticking my tongue out at him. "Don't you know it's always the first thing a person says that is the truth?"

He suddenly looked at me with interest. "Then, if a person says he likes someone, but breaks up with that someone, it wouldn't mean he doesn't like that someone anymore?" he asked seriously, probably referring to himself and Nam.

If he thought I could change my mind so easily, he was so wrong. "Yes, of course. As long as he didn't lie when he said he liked her in the first place." I answered him, looking at him directly as I said the word 'lie'.

"But you just said that the first thing a person says is true." He once again used my words against me. I really hated it when he did that.

"So are you saying that you really like Nam?" I asked, and for the first time since talking about him and Nam getting together again, it kinda hurt to think of that possibility.

However, he didn't even take that long to reply. "Who said I was talking about me and Nam?" He asked, not looking the least bit bothered about it. "I'm just trying to prove you wrong. After all, if you're right, then I wouldn't have made you my boyfriend after hearing you say you'll hate me no matter what, would I?"

0_0

Wait...

Was he actually saying that he believed me when I said I wanted to be his boyfriend in front of all those people? Was he really sincere about the mushy things he was doing for me? That was impossible. He couldn't be so dumb to be doing just that. He was definitely just trying to catch me off-guard.

"How sure are you that I'm being sincere to you?"

"I'm not." He remarked with a shrug as he continued eating. "But what I know is, you hate people who play with other's feelings. And knowing that, you couldn't possibly turn into a person you hate, can you?"

Turn into someone I hate? Was that what I was doing?

No no, he was wrong. In some countries, the robbers who were caught would be punished by cutting off their hands. I believed in a saying 'an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth', so a player had to be played for him to feel the damage he left on his prey.

And that was exactly what I was doing.

I was playing the Player's game.

And somehow, I had a feeling I was succeeding in tricking the ultimate Player of my life.

❤︎